


better not go alone

by shadoedseptmbr



Series: Tales from the Shelterverse [17]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Family Feels, Pre-Game(s), Teddy Bears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 13:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4350536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadoedseptmbr/pseuds/shadoedseptmbr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>fluff and stuff</p>
            </blockquote>





	better not go alone

It was huge in comparison to the sleeping infant, made of rich brown velvet and stuffed with some soft and scrunching material. It had dark, glittering eyes made of faceted glass beads and leather padded paws. And like as not, it had cost most of their scraped and saved coin.

“Malcolm!” Leandra scolded him in a whisper, trying not to wake the baby she’d just laid in her cot, finally finally asleep after a long night of walking and rocking and pleading.

“Hush, love,” Malcolm chided. “It didn’t cost a thing. And anyway, he’ll help her sleep.”

A little fist curled tight around the bear’s soft paw and Malcolm steered Leandra the two steps to her own bed with a firm hand at her back and a soft kiss to her temple. “I’ll bring you a cup, she’ll be fine now.”

\----0000----

“And who is this?” The old woman bent down to greet the little girl, not seeming to mind the way her rusty pink robes puddled in the dust in front of the fishmonger’s. Aeryn stepped farther behind Leandra’s skirts and pushed her bear between the chantry woman and herself.

“This is my daughter, Your Reverence. Aeryn, greet Mother Brigit nicely, now.”

It never did any good to argue with Mama when she had that tone in her voice.

After a beat, Aeryn forced herself to look up and dip into as neat a curtsey as she could manage while still holding Growl and the small basket of berries Leandra had given her to carry. She wobbled a little, even so, and when the old woman tried to catch her hand to steady her Aeryn flinched, knocking back into Mama’s skirts.

“Oh, child. It’s all right.” Brigit glanced up at Leandra with concern in her eyes.

Leandra was stroking Aeryn’s hair with one hand as she apologized. “I’m sorry. The Mother in the last Chantry we attended was…severe. She still remembers.” It was a lie, but a small one and Leandra added that to the list of things to pray about later. No way to explain that the last time Aeryn had seen anyone from the Chantry, the Sister had been calling Templars down on Malcolm and trying to snatch Aeryn from her hands.

But Mother Brigit knew her fellows and only nodded, while dipping her hand into a pocket hidden into her skirts. “I see. Hmm. This is a very fine bear, young lady. Does he have a name?”

“Growl. Your Rev’rence.” Aeryn knew she’d done something wrong from the tone in Mama’s voice and was trying to make up for it with politeness.

Mother Brigit stroked the paw that stuck out towards her. “Very soft. Here, perhaps Ser Growl would wear this for you.” From her pocket she drew a charm on a leather cord and waited while Aeryn glanced up to her mother for permission. When Leandra nodded, Aeryn dipped the bear’s fuzzy head towards her and Brigit dropped it over his ears. “There you go. Now Andraste will watch over Growl while he watches over you.”

“Thank you.” Aeryn ran a finger over the carved clay surface and glanced up. “He likes it.”

“Excellent. Bring him to sing Chant next time you come to town, sweetling.”

\----0000----

It was the second day of lessons and Aeryn hadn’t wanted to go at all  
.  
She’d run away from Mama that morning and it was well into the day before Papa finally found her wedged in the small corn crib, covered in hull and chaff. He brushed the dust from the new dress and picked a few straws out of her long tight braids and set her on his knee before he fixed her with serious eyes. “You have to go, pup.”

“I don’t like it, Papa.” She set her chin but her lip was trembling.

“What’s not to like? You like to read and you like to sing and that’s the most of what they do at the Chantry school.”

“They don’t sing the nice parts, though.”

“No? What did they sing? Mama said you didn’t want to tell her.”

Aeryn shook her head. She didn’t want to tell him, either. “Growl said I shouldn’t tell.”

Malcolm picked up the bear, the velvet rubbed smooth on his ears and on the paw where the leather pad had been replaced last year in a careful surgery that Leandra had sworn a bit over, stabbing her thumb in the process. “Growl is a very smart fellow. But I think he sometimes leads you astray, pup when he tells you to be so quiet.” He snuggled her close and settled the bear in her lap. Aeryn’s arms went tight around its velvet middle. “You know, I went to lessons, too. I might even remember half of what I learned there, but I assure you I remember all of the singing.”

She worried her lip and rolled and unrolled Growl’s ear. Malcolm stilled her busy fingers. “They sang Tran figuur…” her high forehead scrunched up as she struggled with the word.

“Transfigurations. I see.”

She nodded, her eyes on the back of Growl’s round head.

“The part about Maleficar?”

She nodded again, wrapping the cord that held the Andrastian medal around her fist.

“And you thought it was about me?”

“S’ter said any one with magic that didn’t kneel ab….abject in a Circle was one.”

“But it’s not true, is it? Maleficar are those who abuse the Maker’s gifts. Have you ever seen me do wrong with my magic?”

Aeryn turned her bright eyes up at him and he brushed a thumb across the raw skin, setting a spark of healing magic across it. “You did…when those Templars came after us. You…killed them. With ice and fire, Papa.”

His eldest daughter was solemn the way only a five year old could be and Malcolm nodded, seriously. “I did. But they were going to hurt us. Hurt Mama and the twins. And so I used my magic to defend them.”

“It’s alright, then?”

“It is always right to protect. Isn’t that right, Growl?”

Aeryn leaned down to listen to the bear. “He says yes.”

Malcolm rubbed his beard across her cheek, sending Aeryn into a fit of giggles. “There’s my girl. Now, you take Growl into the house, apologize to Mama, and I’ll walk you to town.”

“Yes, ser.”

00000

_She hadn’t grabbed him._

Stinking of smoke and sweat and fear, Aeryn stared into the dark that filled in the road behind the cart.

The run from the house had been frantic, grabbing this and that.  
Bethany hadn’t meant to do it, but it had been a dry season, too dry for practice and windy besides and with one gust the whole field was ablaze and the trees had caught too. Her father had tried to stop it with hastily conjured ice after the twins came running in, interrupting practice to tell but well meaning neighbors had come to help so quickly that he didn’t dare.

The late summer wind had pushed the flames through the tiny patch of woods and then the house had gone up and Growl had still been on the little bed in the tiny room that had been Aeryn’s own, lying on the quilt she’d helped piece all in green last winter. She’d grabbed her new boots and her knives and the little book of adventure tales and then Carver had begged her to help him cram clothes into the twins’ bag and then Mother had needed her to help calm Bethany down … she’d not gone back. Father had dragged her from the house even as the roof started to crackle.

Now they were on their way to kip in a neighbor’s barn for the night, but she’d seen the looks her parents exchanged. They’d be on their way before morning.

Again.

And Growl, who had been with her for every move and through the nightmares she’d had since…

“Is something wrong, pup?” There were creases around Father’s eyes and a burn on his chin had singed away some of the beard there. Smudges of greasy smoke stained the hand on her shoulder. He didn’t need her little girl problem. “Besides the obvious?” He gave her a tired smile and she forced herself to smile back.

“No, Father. Just…thinking.”

“We’ll head south, I reckon. We haven’t been that way in a while.”

“All right.”

His hand squeezed. “Let me know if you have trouble sleeping. I managed to rescue my kit and you’ll need the rest.”

“Yes, ser.”

Beth noticed, though, that Aeryn didn’t have him when the three of them snuggled down in the sweet prickly hay. Her sister didn't often sleep with the worn toy, anymore but he usually still sat close to hand. “Where’s Ser Growl?”

Aeryn shrugged, “I missed him when we left.”

“Oh, no. OH, Aeryn, I'm so sorry I didn't mean..."

“Shh…no it’s alright, Bethy.” Her sister’s soft brown eyes were teary again in her hastily washed face but Aeryn waved off her little sister's wailing apologies, with a hope of keeping their parents from hearing. She cut her eyes to their brother and he wrapped his arm around his twin, adding his support. “He was just a toy.”

“But…”

“It’s alright,” Aeryn patted the hay into a nest and glanced out of the wide barn door; her parents outlined by the moonlight, their heads down and discussing tomorrow's journey. “C’mon, we’ll sleep like pups in a pile. We’ll be fine.”

Carver’s eyes, blue and tip-tilted like her own, were more assessing but he settled into the hay and pulled Bethany in with him. Aeryn curled up on the other side of him, facing the door. Bethany had worn herself out, fretting and apologizing, and neither of them were surprised when she fell asleep first. But Carver waited until Bethany’s breathing was deep and even and Mother and Father’s whispering conversation had fallen silent before he asked, “You sure?”

Under her breath, Aeryn forced a chuckle. “Like I’m ever going to be lonesome with the two of you crowding me. You have to stop eating onions before bedtime, little brother, if we’re going to be sharing this kip.”

His back was warm and wiry against hers when he yawned. “Least it’s not winter.”

“Yeah.”

“And we’re all here.”

“Always.”

\---0000-----

The night was frigid and Aeryn’s fingers were like ice when she curled them against Sebastian’s stomach, startling him out of a sound sleep.

He was clinging to the edge closest to the brazier, curled up instead of in his usual sprawl. Aeryn must have woken up and gone wandering, else he’d have curved himself around her banked heat. She spooned around him now, though. One leg tucked between his thighs, the soft curve of her cheek pressed against his shoulder and those cold fingers, chilled against his belly. Stroking. Sebastian enjoyed the sensation for a moment before he snagged the woolen coverlet from where it puddled on the floor and pulled it back around them. He covered her hand with his own, tugging it higher to his chest.

“Mmmm. Furry.” She mumbled into his shoulder, continuing to stroke the curling hair she found there, before the light burr of her breathing told him she’d tumbled back into sleep. “G’d bear.”

He grinned into the night. “Sleep well, _à ruin_.”


End file.
